The Antipode Room — Ruth Skilbeck

‘Know thyself' is a Greek proverb. But what does it mean? How? Something is missing. But she can't think what it is. Mysterious art dealer Countess Ruby is jailed in Australia for the traumatic murder she cannot recall. In her adopted, art-world high society life in London, acting the part and role-playing replaced authenticity. Ruby, amnesiac, kept up appearances. Then she and husband Sir Hugo Rivers go to Australia, to collect art. She returns to a past life she forgot. A triangular love affair, Margarita and Raymond, troubled artist; a disappeared friend, love, daughter. What is the significance of the woman violinist playing Bach's Contrapunctus 14 haunting her? Who did what? The first Australian Fugue volume interweaves the fictional story with cases of fugue from cultural history and medical texts.